The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Madhuram Narayanan Centre's work lauded

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Madhuram Narayanan Centre's work lauded

Special Correspondent

Its intervention among children with mental retardation excellent: N. Ram Its intervention among children with mental retardation excellent: N. Ram

CHENNAI: The proceedings of last year's conference on Early Intervention in Mental Retardation, released at a function in the city on Thursday, constitute a body of work that will bolster rehabilitation and intervention works in the disability sector, speakers said.

The booklet, released by N. Ram, Editor-In-Chief, The Hindu , is a compilation of the abstracts of presentations made by resource persons at the conference organised by the Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children. It also contains the recommendations made during the conference, key among them being the need to strengthen antenatal and perinatal health services in the government sector, networking with all stakeholders to disseminate information on prevention of disabilities and provide the option of genetic testing for high-risk babies.

Handing over the first copy to K.S. Narayanan, chairman, board of directors, Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children, Mr. Ram said the Centre led by the team, including V. Krishnaswamy, its director, Jaya Krishnaswamy and P. Jeyachandran, had done excellent work among children with mental retardation.

Training for journalists

Their work was among the best in recent years as evident in the change at the ground level. The Centre, set up by Sanmar Group, had élan and foresight, Mr. Ram said. He suggested that the Centre consider providing training to journalists in order to enable them to deliver real life stories in a humane way.

N. Sankar, chairman, Sanmar Group, said the Centre was set up in memory of his mother, Madhuram Narayanan. The involvement of parents in the intervention process was recognised as the key. The future challenge for the Centre would be in the area of human resources, the task of finding people to carry on the work that has been done so far by committed people.

Air Vice-Marshal (Retd.) V. Krishnaswamy presented an overview of the conference held between December 8 and 11, 2004 and attended by over 200 delegates. It provided stakeholders updates on the latest developments in the areas of prevention, genetics, management and rehabilitation of the disabled.

N. Kumar, vice-president, Sanmar Group, said the Centre was started in December 1989 to implement the UPANAYAN early intervention programme for children with mental retardation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu